The cliché about Tauranga being a city of the newly wed and nearly dead is about to be revived with the city council agreeing to lead the city into ‘age friendly cityship'.
It's a World Health Organisation process that is now to be included in the 2012-2022 Ten Year Plan.
In deliberations on the annual plan submission, the Tauranga City Council decided to lead the process and give it priority so it can be slotted into the current 2012-2022 Ten Year Plan process.
The council decision is the result of successful lobbying by a collaboration of agencies that produced 89 submissions requesting the council commit to being an ‘age friendly city'.
'It is very heartening that the community voice was respected by the city council,” said Carole Gordon, convener of the 11 agency collaborative effort.
The Global Age Friendly Cities framework is promoted by the World Health Organisation as a guide for local governments to respond to planning for ageing populations.
It seeks to change systems and policies to meet the independence needs of growing numbers of mature and older people as the baby-boomer generation ages.
'What is really interesting is that when improvements are made to suit elders, the outcomes produce social and economic benefit for all generations,” says Carole.
'While this is often hard to understand, we have to look ahead with a generous and not limited perspective, after all, this group will be largest set of consumers the world has ever known.”
In Tauranga, the number of people aged over 65 will increase by 50 per cent within the next 10 years and is projected to reach nearly 32,000 by 2026.
There are three steps in the process: the city council first has to undertake an assessment of how age friendly the city is now, develop a three year action plan, and then develop indicators to monitor progress.
The bureaucratic process is all determined by WHO and there is little flexibility if the formal ‘age friendly city' status is to be achieved and maintained.
Tauranga may be the first council in New Zealand to make this decision, says Carole.
5 comments
An age-friendly environment
Posted on 08-06-2011 06:53 | By IanM
Congratulations to TCC on this initiative, but it is hardly surprising that age-friendly initiatives are friendly to everybody. If you make your environment safer for older folk, who have slower reflexes and tend to do things cautiously, then you will also make it safer for children and everybody inbetween. Fantastic news to see that our world just might shift away from the "car first at all costs" mentality, and towards a "let's put people first" approach.
10 year plan
Posted on 08-06-2011 09:53 | By Capt_Kaveman
i think the only thing this council and following councils should worry about is getting TGA out of dept and fix its infrstructure
What do they pay these people?
Posted on 08-06-2011 10:59 | By al pillocksworth
What an exercise in the extremely obvious? Do people get paid to come up with this stuff? I think it's just more meaningless drivel. Do we really need an action plan? Can't our leaders see the obvious needs and just spend the policy writing money on doing them? Three years of blah blah followed by monitoring the blah blah. Oh, and there's no money to do the practical stuff because its just been spent.
Age Friendly Cities initiative
Posted on 08-06-2011 11:48 | By Pamax
In answer to "al pillocksworth". The people who initiated this (Age Friendly City) strategy are volunteers. Changes to the City plan will be implemented at the planning stage. Your comment about the city's need for an action plan will be treated with the contempt it deserves but you are welcome to enjoy the benefits our strategy initiative will bring to Tauranga. Max Lewis. member: TCC Elders Forum
apologies to Max
Posted on 08-06-2011 14:28 | By al pillocksworth
Accepting Max Lewis statement that the people involved are all volunteers and are not paid. But I think I could be forgiven for thinking that this would just be one more in a long lines of plans that have come and gone around the city. I look forward to all the good things that will come of it, and will duly consider myself proved wrong.
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